Pop Culture Happy Hour: The Lure Of The Open Road

Among the many things to which we turn our thoughts in summer is road-tripping — particularly apt because Glen Weldon and Stephen Thompson were both traveling this week, bringing Mike Katzif and Barrie Hardymon to the discussion with me and Trey Graham. We had a chat about all manner of road movies, from the classic dust-and-motorcycles type to the kind that might not even appear to be a road movie until you look more closely.

If you want to know what road movies — and what we called "quest movies," which are different but related — we talked about, I can give you a list, but take a deep breath first: Planes, Trains and Automobiles; Thelma and Louise; Tommy Boy; Boys On The Side; It Happened One Night; The Sure Thing; Forces Of Nature; When Harry Met Sally; Due Date; The Hangover; Y Tu Mama Tambien; Paul; About Schmidt; Sideways; Easy Rider; Before Sunrise; Stand By Me; The Wizard Of Oz; The Lord Of The Rings; Jeff, Who Lives At Home; Pee-wee's Big Adventure; The Muppet Movie; The Fugitive; The Defiant Ones; Midnight Run; Bonnie and Clyde; Broken Flowers; Away We Go; The Jerk; Little Miss Sunshine; Wendy and Lucy; Meek's Cutoff; Children Of Men; The Road; Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World; White Wedding; Far And Away; Almost Famous; Stardust; and — we did not forget — The Grapes Of Wrath. So I think we learned that not all road movies are alike. And here's the list Trey found of global road movies.

I also administered a quiz to the group about summer box office, asking them about superhero movies, flops, and other trivia. (Here's the Kevin Costner movie we're trying to think of at one point.)

And of course, we talk about what's making us happy this week. Barrie is all happy about the Les Miz trailer. Trey is happy about a very different but a very quotable trailer. He also is jazzed about something that's literally a secret. Mike very much enjoys Fiona Apple's new record. (Here's the discussion with Guy Raz to which Barrie refers.) As for me, I'm still happy about these two books, and about the surprisingly good Magic Mike — particularly the deceptively great Matthew McConaughey, who is very much more interesting as an actor than you might think.